The permanent exhibition at the Polish Gentry Museum at Waplewo Wielkie presents the palace interior, with reference to its original layout from the times of its former owners of the Sierakowski family, of the Ogończyk coat of arms, and their predecessors. The Waplewo interiors are redolent of the atmosphere of a noble house whose owners, in keeping with the zeitgeist, treated their home not only as a family retreat, but also as an oasis of Polish culture in a land that had been taken by Prussia in the Partitions of Poland and a kind of museum as an institution to raise awareness of art and develop the Polish national identity.

The Vestibule freely draws on the interiors of Gdańsk vestibules. The hunting trophies, both domestic and exotic, are a testament to the hunting privileges its owners’ enjoyed; they welcome visitors to the manor and encourage them to tour it, starting with its most stately part.

The Billiards Room, one in a suite of three connecting rooms, displays furniture for game playing: a chess and bridge table with a folding table top. Based on an account by Andrzej Sierakowski, the son of the manor’s last owners, the walls are decorated with family portraits which, with the Museum’s funds and a donation from Izabella Sierakowska-Tomaszewska, the last of the Sierakowskis, returned to her ancestral home. One of the most valuable portraits is that of Stanisław Sołtan by distinguished portraitist Giovanni Battista Lampi.

The White Room is a drawing room with an exhibit of European painting. Paintings of many genres by myriad artists take up entire walls, in keeping with late 19th-century fashion. Owing to the generosity of the last of the Sierakowski family, the walls are mostly decorated with paintings from the old Waplewo collection. The richly ornamented mirrors with huge glass panes add to the room’s stately character, perfect for holding balls and ceremonial social gatherings.

The Gdańsk Room, as its name suggests, mainly exhibits Gdańsk furniture, Elbląg handicraft and Dutch closets that were once thought to have been made by Gdańsk-based artisans. Seeking to preserve Gdańsk handicraft, Maria Sierakowska née Sołtan, had the fronts of old Gdańsk closets mounted in place of the doors leading to the Dining Room and Library. You can see the original 1896 ceiling and an historic 17th-century fireplace acquired by the Sierakowskis from the Elbląg Town Hall.

The Corner Drawing Room is an example of interior design style from the late 18th/early 19th century. The walls are lined with cloth with period prints in the same style. The interior’s patroness is Marianna Lubomirska née Granowska, who bequeathed her legacy to the Sierakowskis. The room, an ex-voto for the benefactor aunt, once had her sculpture and paintings from her collections, of which a painting of Christ remains (exhibited in the drawing room).

In the Dining Room, like in the Gdańsk Room, the door to the Pantry imitates a door once made of an old Gdańsk closet. In keeping with the memories of Waplewo’s household members and guests, the walls are decorated with royal portraits that inspired the diners to talk about the glorious past of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The room displays valuable Meissen, Vienna and Berlin tableware, along with original damask tablecloths with the Ogończyk coat of arms.

The Bedrooms of the Lord and Lady of the Manor, the Study and the Office, also known as the Armoury, in the house’s private quarters, are furnished with household objects. There are bedclothes decorated with heraldic crowns reserved for families of counts, toiletry sets, chamber pots, which were necessary to maintain everyday hygiene with no plumbing available, desk writing sets and inkwells vital to the everyday administering of the property, and devotional items. The rooms are decorated with late-19th-centry style wallpaper, in keeping with the changes to the interior décor made at Waplewo palace upon the wedding of Adam Sierakowski and Maria Potocka of Krzeszowice. The feeling of cosiness is enhanced by the old photographs and portraits of the Sierakowskis and Lubomirskis from Przeworsk, where Waplewo’s last owner Helena, Stanisław’s wife, hailed from.

Based on architectural surveys, the Strongroom is considered a relic of a 17th-century fortified castle. For this reason, a decision was made to show the walls with exposed bricks. Original fragments of a stone floor made of Öland limestone found here after an alteration made in the 1970s have been placed here, which, together with archival photographs, became a template for the stone floors in the restored palace. On display here is a 17th-century chest of drawers called a sepet, used to keep valuables and documents. It was gifted to Andrzej and Zofia Sierakowski, née Herburt, as a wedding present from their cousins, the Branickis.

The Library, which once contained 11 bookcases with 10,000 books, had as its librarian Adam Lew Sołtan, the lady of the manor’s brother, who organised the collection by topic, with each section labelled with a different colour. The Museum features a number of books from the time of Antoni Sierakowski with ex-libris. Today, a library is being accumulated here, dedicated to matters of Polish and international gentry, including armorials, glossaries, monographs on selected families and residences, studies of the landed gentry, the phenomenon of the Polish manor and noble house interiors.

The Orangery presents exotic plants with an intensely blooming Chinese rose. The versatile room serves as a concert hall during recurring Chopin music concerts, a memento of Frederic Chopin’s stay in Waplewo in 1827.